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In an interview with PM’s Ewa Boniecka, the Lithuanian ambassador to Poland, Egidijus Meilunas, talks about how strategic partnership, good neighbourhood policy and friendship between Poland and Lithuania are bearing fruit across a wide spectrum of cooperation. That cooperation is set in a special context due to a common history which was cemented in the 16th century when the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania signed a formal agreement of union, the first of its kind in Europe, which lasted until the 18th century and the partition of Poland

Ewa Boniecka: One of the most important aspects of Polish-Lithuanian relations is the development of close cooperation in the field of energy. In recent years there were many declarations from a top political level that an ‘energy bridge’ linking Poland’s and Lithuania’s power grids would be built but so far nothing has happened. Why?

Egidijus Meilunas: I am glad that you have started with that question, because the year 2008 brings a real breakthrough in our long lasting talks about cooperation in the field of energy.

There are three major projects which are at an advanced stage. Firstly, an agreement establishing a Polish-Lithuanian joint venture called Lit-Pol Link has been signed. This will draw up a technical project for building a high voltage ‘energy bridge’ between our two countries. Poland’s PSE Operator S.A and Lithuania’s Lietuvos Energija AB, which are partners in that venture, will draw up a technical project, secure further financing and regulatory agreements. It will also approve the possible routes for the grid to be built between Poland and Lithuania.

The LitPol Link Company, which is based in Warsaw and led by a Lithuanian chairman, is now engaged in the preparation of the first stage of realizing the whole project. That stage involves the linking of the Polish and Lithuanian electricity systems by building a cable from Elitus in Lithuania to Ełk in Poland, which is over 150 km. It should be finished by 2012, if Poland and Lithuania invest enough money to upgrade the existing energy infrastructure. The second and third stages of constructing the ‘bridge’ will be more difficult and will need much more time, because it means the development of electricity networks on both sides. The final aim is to connect the ‘bridge’ with the European electricity grid. Both countries hope that the whole costly investment will be financially backed by the European Union in the name of showing solidarity and providing more energy security for the region.

How is the proposed Polish-Lithuanian cooperation in building new nuclear reactors in Ignalina progressing? The two existing units there that were designed by the Soviet Union had to be shut down when Lithuania joined the European Union.

It is the second of our major projects of cooperation in the field of energy which has yet to be developed. The first unit of the Ignalina nuclear power plant, which was built in the seventies and based on soviet technology, was closed in December 2004. The second, which is still functioning and was modernized with the help of the Baltic states, particularly Sweden, has to be shut down by 2010. This presents a big problem for Lithuania, because it supplies 70 percent of the country’s electricity. Since 1990 there have been ongoing discussions about building a new nuclear power plant at the same site. In 2006 at a meeting in Trakai, the prime ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia signed a communiqué in which they invited state-owned energy companies in their countries to invest in the design and construction of a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania. Poland decided that it wanted to join that project, and in July 2008 the power companies of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland agreed to set up the Visaginas Nuclear Plant Company, which will be responsible for the construction of a new power plant named after the larger nearby town, Ignalina. Intensive talks between power companies are being conducted. In February 2009 the report concerning environmental issues connected with the construction of the nuclear plant will be ready. After that, the production capacity of the new plant has to be decided. It is estimated that the new plant will be ready by 2015-2017. The importance of this investment is well understood by all the sides involved. Without the energy from nuclear power our countries face a shortage of electricity on a big scale so now is the right time for us to cooperate to obtain it.

Poland and Lithuania are promoting project ‘Amber’ which involves the building of an alternative to the ‘Nord Stream’ gas pipeline which could be used not only for the transit of Russian gas to Europe, but also to import Norwegian gas. How far advanced is the project?

It is a new project which involves all the Baltic states. The pipeline could go through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and would provide us with more security in gas supply from Russia. At the moment our four countries are asking the European Union to support the project and hope to get European Union money for a feasibility study into the project. Experts say that it would be more environmentally friendly than the German-Russian pipeline which is being built under the Baltic Sea. What is also important is that ‘Amber’ would link that part of Europe to a flexible gas system, which could also link us with other European countries. This is still a project of the future however.

How is Polish-Lithuanian cooperation in other economic areas?

There are two directions in our cooperation: investments and trade. Poland is the biggest investor in Lithuania with the current value of its investment up till now valued at EUR 2 bln. Your oil company, PKN ORLEN, which purchased the plant in Możejki, is now modernizing that refinery and raising its efficiency after last year’s fire. ORLEN is investing USD 300 mln in the Możejki plant this year alone and a total of USD 1.6 bln over the next six years .Your insurance company PZU is number one in its category in Lithuania and the Warta group from Poznań is dominant on the market of high quality glass. Lithuanian investment in Poland is also significant, among other ventures we have invested in the pharmaceutical company, Jelfa.

Our mutual trade is systematically growing. Poland is the third biggest trading partner for Lithuania and for your country we are in nineteenth place, but you have to consider the difference in the size of population of both countries. I want to point out that after our countries became members of the European Union, bilateral trade has been growing each year at about 40 percent. This year it will reach over PLN 10 bln, which I consider a good result with prospects for future growth.

How do you evaluate the political cooperation between Poland and Lithuania?

Our political cooperation is very good and friendly and has a strategic character. We have common interests as neighbours and relatively new members of the European Union. We therefore share the same aspirations and some anxieties about the future and cooperate closely inside the European Union. Poland and Lithuania were the first countries in the European Union to raise the issue of energy security and consequently have pressed to include it in the EU agenda. Due to our location and history we are naturally sensitive in evaluating the EU policy towards Russia. Together with the other Baltic countries we are articulating some special interests in that part of Europe and promoting them in the context of European Union eastern policy.

Obviously the general direction of EU relations with Russia has to be harmonized between all members. However, sometimes the separate position taken on a particular issue and expressed by one or better still, a few allied countries could make a bigger impact. I think that Lithuania, other members from our region and Poland, which due to its size and strategic location often plays a leadership role for such a group, bilateral relations Lithuania could have and often does have a significant influence in shaping the EU relations with Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

Lithuania is a central-east European as well as a Baltic country, how important is it for your national identity?

It is important and it shows how complex the development of identity in our country was. On one side it was linked to the eastern Baltic and Northern nations and on the other connected with Poland and other Central European Christian nations. The Lithuanian language belongs to the group of Indoeuropean languages and is one of the oldest in Europe. When the Baltic countries were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union we shared the memory of our independence and were different in our culture, customs and national identity, feeling that we were part of the West. Add to this our historical ties with Poland when the Commonwealth of Two Nations was the multicultural union between a Slavic and Baltic country. Lasting for nearly four hundred years, it was the first multinational, multicultural union in Europe at that time. As Pope John Paul II said in 2003: “From the Lublin Union to the European Union.”

How does present day Lithuania look at its historical ties with Poland?

When we were part of the Soviet Union our history was totally falsified and we were taught at school that Poland was our enemy, so now it is especially important for us to recapture our true history and to see our historical relations with Poland in an objective light. Since Lithuania regained its independence in 1990 everything that happened in our history is taking its rightful place. This year we celebrated for a second time the anniversary of the 3 May constitution from 1791 as a historical legacy of the Polish and Lithuanian nations. Naturally, we are also talking about confrontational periods in our history, but all discussions about it are conducted with reverence towards each other. An important aspect of our relations is respect towards the monuments of Polish culture and heritage in Lithuania and the historical objects of Lithuanian culture in Poland.

There are some problems concerning the Polish minority in Lithuania and they are often exposed by the Polish media. For instance the issue of returning lands, which were taken from Poles by the communist regime. Why is this process going so slowly?

In Lithuania there are now 230,000 Poles, who represent over seven percent of our population. They have the status of Lithuanian citizens and of course have the same rights. This issue concerns the returning of lands according to the re-privatization law, which was passed in Lithuania immediately after regaining independence. It is a difficult process because in Lithuania, contrary to Poland, there wasn’t any private ownership of land during the communist period. Buildings, roads and factories were constructed on the then state owned land and now to return it to previous owners requires a lot of effort and it applies to all Lithuanians, not just to the Polish minority. For instance Vilnius, with a big concentration of Poles, was in 1945 a much smaller city and under the nationalization law a great number of blocks were constructed on the outskirts and now it is really difficult to give that specific land back. Local authorities are looking for some other form of compensation or alternative plots of land to be returned. It is the same situation in Kaunas, where the majority of inhabitants are Lithuanians, therefore to look at the process of returning land to Poles as being especially slow is not based on fact. In the Vilnius region the majority of Poles have received their land back and the process of further returns is going as quickly as possible.

How about the regulations dealing with the writing of Polish names and surnames in their original version, which are still causing many complaints amongst Poles in Lithuania?

Well, there is a great deal of misunderstanding about it. The first step to regulate that question was taken in 1991, when our parliament passed the bill allowing the writing of names in the native language of the Latin alphabet, after communist times when many names in Lithuania were distorted, including Polish ones. I would like to add that there are no common EU regulations dealing with standards of writing names and that each country can decide about it independently. According to the rules of Lithuanian grammar, we do not have for example the letter ‘w’, and so some foreign names are presented in the Lithuanian version, while the original version is carried in brackets. Once again it is not exclusively a problem of Polish names but also German, English and so on. We are willing to deal with those linguistic matters step by step and the second bill which is going to simplify them is now going through parliament.

We have talked about some problems experienced by the Polish minority, which have to be resolved, now let’s turn to the bright sides of being a Pole in Lithuania. What are the main ones?

There is an excellent Polish school system in Lithuania. There is the possibility to be taught in the Polish language from kindergarten to university. We have over 100 Polish schools and among them there are some mixed, for example Polish-Lithuanian, Polish-Russian and Polish-Lithuanian-Russian ones. Statistics show that the graduates of Polish schools have the best results during admission to university with over 80 percent of those graduates going to universities. From 2007 in Vilnius there has been a branch of Białystok University and already there is a steady exchange of students.

There are hundreds of ties between Poles in Lithuania and Poland, and a constant movement of people. Polish tourists are flocking to Vilnius and other places dear to Polish hearts and in return there are over 200 events presenting Lithuanian culture in Poland every year. Over the last few years Poles and Lithuanians have created very strong new bonds of friendship based on mutual respect and understanding and I feel that we are now the best of neighbours in every sense of that word.

You belong to a younger generations of Lithuanians and yet your Polish language is excellent. Where did you learn it?

I do not have ancestors of Polish roots, but I was raised in Vilnius in the melting pot of cultures. When I was a school boy, knowledge of the Polish language was a way of opening a window to the West through music, books and magazines. So I started reading Polish books, magazines and listening to the Polish radio, especially music and news programmes, for example “Lato z radiem”. It was the same for people in Kaunas and some other places, where they even had the opportunity to watch Polish TV. Today when both countries are in the European Union this window is wide open to all of us. We are again together at the heart of Europe.